The present disclosure relates to a dry reagent, a dry reagent kit, a reagent container, and a method for producing the same.
In the field of molecular biology, various nucleic acid amplification methods such as the PCR method and the like are widely used as a method for amplifying a target nucleic acid sequence. The nucleic acid amplification is performed in a reaction solution containing, as essential components, polymerase, nucleic acid monomers such as dNTPs, an inorganic salt, a primer, and a buffer agent such as trishydroxyaminomethane (formal name: tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane). In this nucleic acid amplification reaction, a commercially available kit for nucleic acid amplification is generally used. The kit may be, for example, a kit including multiple liquid reagents obtained by combining the essential components and stored in the respective containers. However, there is a problem in that it is difficult to store the liquid reagents at normal temperature for a long period of time because the stability thereof is poor.
In order to avoid the stability problem, a kit for nucleic acid amplification, obtained by combining a dry reagent containing a nucleic acid monomer and a primer as some of essential components and a liquid reagent containing the other essential components has been proposed (JP 2007-43997 A). According to this kit, for example, a nucleic acid may be amplified by adding a test sample to the dry reagent so as to dissolve the dry reagent in the test sample and thereafter mixing a liquid reagent in the mixture thus obtained. However, it is difficult to store the liquid reagent at normal (room) temperature because the stability of polymerase contained in the liquid reagent is poor when in a liquid. Therefore, it is necessary to refrigerate or freeze the liquid reagent, for example. However, for example, in view of the case of subjecting a large number of test samples to nucleic acid amplification and distributing the liquid reagents, it is desired that the kit for nucleic acid amplification may be stored at normal (room) temperature.
On the other hand, as a kit for nucleic acid amplification, including essential components in a dry state, a kit including a dry reagent containing polymerase and a dry reagent containing essential components other than polymerase individually has been proposed (JP 2008-501331 A).